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Only 50% of refugee children in low income countries attend primary school, making them five times less likely to attend school than children in their host communities. Only 22% are receiving a secondary level education.

Reading facts like this, it can feel like we’re a long way from real progress on meeting the New York Declaration’s commitment to get every refugee child into school ‘within a few months of arrival’. However a new report from Save the Children has set out a global plan of action to achieve just that…

By Tatjana Ristic, Save the Children North West Balkans - Balkans Migration and Displacement Hub

Calling for re-mapping of global education by involving knowledge producers that have traditionally been marginalized and disrupting hierarchies of knowledge production and distribution, the conference has called for approaches with a focus on participation, and openness to the dialogue. By including a discussion on migration, CIES 2018 has recognized the need for education systems to adapt and respond adequately to the needs of population on the move.

Last December, I traveled to Lebanon to visit Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) programs that serve Syrian refugees through education, learning support and psychosocial assistance. I saw lives that were being transformed through the power of education – parents who were so thankful to have a safe place to send their child to school, and students who were excited at the opportunities an education could provide for them.

We have two panels at this year’s CIES conference focusing on refugee education. The first looks at pathways for getting children into quality education, and the second focuses on innovation in the field. Details on the sessions and where to find us can be found here...

‘’We should think of refugee camps and communities as more than just population centers where people languish waiting for the war to end. Rather, we should think of refugee camps as centers of excellence, where refugees can triumph over their trauma and train for the day that they can go home as agents of positive change and social transformation.’’

Refugee education is at a vital turning point. While accessing education is a problem for all refugees, young adults aged 16 - 25 face particular difficulty in continuing their education once they have become uprooted.

In 2011, UNRWA embarked on a systemic agency wide reform which sought to further strengthen support for each child towards realising their full potential. The Reform has shown impact at all levels, with improvements in the quality of teaching and learning, children achieving more academically and dropout rates decreasing.

UNRWA achieved this despite a very challenging operational context: nearly eleven years of blockade on Gaza, occupation related issues in the West Bank, a devastating war in Syria, high poverty rates and limited employment opportunities in Lebanon, and high poverty levels in Jordan. UNRWA has continued to deliver education in times of emergencies through the introduction of innovations such as student self-learning through UNRWA’s own dedicated TV network, which reaches our students who do not have access to schools...

Often, the image that comes to mind if asked that question is of a settlement like Jalozai camp in Pakistan, with rows of tents sectioned by UNHCR canvas sheets. Or what is now the sprawling Dadaab refugee complex in Kenya – or the newer Zaatari camp in Jordan, with pre-fab containers dotting the desert. A refugee camp is a world in itself, involving stakeholders from aid agencies to national and local governments, to the communities who find themselves adjusting to a new ecosystem, while dreaming of a home they may not see again.

In reality, only a small fraction of people who are forcibly displaced live in formal camps. In Pakistan, for instance, about 90 percent of displaced persons live outside camp situations; and only one fifth of Syrian refugees in Jordan live in Zaatari camp...

When the Syrian crisis broke out, it was a continuation of the Arab spring. We were happy excited and proud. Slowly the situation developed into a war and the positive protests slowly turned into devastation. Syrians started to trickle into Jordan. They were friends and family. The border between Jordan and Syria was an artificial line drawn by the colonizers a few decades ago. Families were living on both sides. People shared their homes, food and resources.

As the crisis grew and the numbers, international aid agencies and donors started sending in money, people and resources. These efforts came with something else. They gave a name to the Syrian people family and friends in Jordan. They called them refugees.

By Stephanie McBride, Senior Progam Officer, World University Service of Canada. Blog first posted by One Campaign here 3 January 2018

As the sun rises over the dusty roads, its light begins to reflect on the corrugated tin rooftops. In these early hours, houses are already bustling with activity as young children prepare for school.

In this refugee camp, as in hundreds of others across the world, many girls are busy preparing breakfast while helping their siblings get ready for the day. After their chores are done, the girls who are fortunate enough to still be in school will hurriedly put on their uniforms and run to class, trying not to be late.

Imagine being forced to flee your home—leaving behind your school, stability, and community; and losing family and friends—to start again in a new region of your country or the world. Now imagine this at the age of four.

Your family and community structures have been disrupted, you and the adult caregivers you rely on are experiencing psychological trauma, and now you live in a camp with acute shortages of resources and lack of educational opportunities.

Over the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s fifteen years of research on refugee education, the dilemma that is the focus of this week’s webinar is the one we hear most about from refugee parents and children. “Approaching the immediate crisis with a long-term perspective” encapsulates a resonant tension in the experiences of refugee families and the design of policies and programs: despite the clear desire for conflict to cease and for return “home” to be possible, most refugee children will spend more than two decades in exile. That’s their one shot at education. How do we address this tension? Our work points to ways in which this question is, at core, a question about the purposes of education.

by Emma Wagner, Education in Emergencies Policy & Advocacy Adviser, Save the Children

Despite ever turbulent political times in the UK - including recent changes within the top team at the Department for International Development – parliamentary business continues as usual. The global education sector in the UK has been long awaiting the International Development Committee’s(IDC) report on DFID’s work on education: Leaving no one behind?

The IDC is an influential committee of cross-party MPs in the UK Parliament and over the past year, the Committee has conducted an extensive inquiry into the work of DFID in delivering quality education to the poorest and most marginalised children in the world. Their report puts forward an ambitious plan for how the UK could help close the global education financing gap, and continue to increase access to and quality of education, especially for those who are most marginalised, including refugees.

The Promising Practices in Refugee Education initiative identified ten recommendations, grouped under three overarching pillars, aimed at improving refugee education policy and practice. Join representatives from the case studies in 3 upcoming webinars as we explore the themes and recommendations in depth.

By Negin Dahya, Assistant Professor, University of Washington Information School

Innovation in refugee education includes developments that are both social and technological. These include online teaching and learning practices, digital gameplay for tablets and phones, tools to monitor and evaluate education systems, open educational resources (OERs), and more. As well, new ways of using existing technology can be considered innovative, particularly when they impact how a society is structured. In this post, I outline the current landscape of ICT and education in conflict and crisis. I then present one example of how an existing, multipurpose, and social technology – the mobile phone – can connect and map networks to support education in refugee camps.

Earlier this year Save the Children, Pearson and UNHCR formed a new groundbreaking partnership to tackle the refugee education crisis. The Promising Practices in Refugee Education initiative sets out to identify, document and promote innovative ways to effectively provide quality education to refugee children and young people.

The key findings and lessons learned from the case studies were synthesised in this report and launched at the UN General Assembly. The programmes and the experiences of implementing partners were used to identify ten recommendations grouped under three overarching pillars, aimed at improving refugee education policy and practice.

Blog post by Sara-Christine Dallain MPH, Director of Programs, iACT. First featured on iACT's website

When working in refugee education, it’s important to remember that each refugee child arrives with unique experiences and needs, all of which require distinct responses. However, as the Promising Practcies in Refugee education initiative stated in their Synthesis Report, the rush by the international community to provide services to refugee beneficiaries—especially in emergencies—combined with a perceived lack of expertise at the local level, means that the actual participation of beneficiaries in education solutions is not realized or carried out in a meaningful way, leaving the unique needs of young children and their community unaddressed.

On Friday 21st September Save the Children, Pearson and UNHCR were delighted to launch the Synthesis Report and twenty case studies for the Promising Practices in Refugee Education initiative at a conference at the UN General Assembly, New York.

As we work to improve the overall quality and effectiveness of our humanitarian responses by improving coordination, reducing duplication, and trying to mitigate the competitive environment in which we work, the Teachers in Crisis Contexts (TiCC) Working Group provides a notable example within the field of Education in Emergencies. The TiCC began over three years ago when a small group of individuals from different organizations came together to respond to the needs of refugees and other displaced persons teaching in crisis-affected contexts...

During this half-day conference, promising practices that have been documented as part of the initiative will hold interactive demonstrations of their work, a panel will discuss learnings and recommendations, and there will be key note speakers and networking opportunities.

Organisations that have been selected for their promising practices include: Caritas Switzerland, Children on the Edge, i-ACT, International Rescue Committee, Libraries Without Borders, Mercy Corps, Norwegian Refugee Council, Relief International, RET International, Save the Children, Teachers College Columbia, UNRWA, Vodafone Foundation, War Child UK, Windle Trust Kenya, World University Service of Canada and We Love Reading.

Education is the only tool that gives back the lost dignity to refugee children. The thirst for education among the multinational refugee children in Kakuma Refugee Camp is insatiable. Effective education is only achieved through effective teachers, for great teachers create great students. In fact, an inspired and informed teacher is the most important factor influencing student achievements. Nowhere in the world are such teachers needed more than in Kakuma Refugee Camp in Turkana County, north-eastern Kenya.